Delhi HC reserves orders on Kejriwal’s bail plea in excise policy case

New Delhi
The Delhi high court on Monday reserved orders on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s regular bail plea in the Delhi excise policy case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) dubbed Kejriwal the “sutradhaar (facilitator)” of the entire scam, to which Kejriwal pointed out that “going by this logic”, 15 bureaucrats, including former lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, who approved the policy, should also be made accused.
As the bench of justice Neena Bansal Krishna reserved their verdict in the matter, CBI counsel special public prosecutor DP Singh said that although Kejriwal, being the party’s national convener, held no (ministerial) responsibility, the agency had “cogent” and “direct” evidence regarding his direct involvement in the formulation and the implementation of the now-scrapped 2021-22 excise policy.
Singh argued that the chief minister, being the head of the cabinet, circulated the draft of the excise policy in haste for the approval of the council of ministers during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, signed the same and was quick to take ex-post facto approval of the council of ministers after the issue blew up.
“The direct involvement is writ large, and he is the convener of AAP with no responsibility, but every minister has been appointed by him. He appointed his Secretariat and Vijay Nair is the part of his Secretariat. He (Kejriwal) is the head of the cabinet. He signs it (excise policy). He is the one sending it. He is the one who gets it circulated in haste in one day,” Singh said.
The agency indicated that this period coincided with the Covid-19 lockdown and the South Group — the alleged beneficiaries of the scam — arrived in the Capital and were monitoring the entire process. “It is recorded in same day that everybody signs, and it is put to group of ministers and it is passed,” Singh said.
Questioning the presence of any direct evidence to link Kejriwal with the case, senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vikram Chaudhari, and N Hariharan objected to the probe agency calling their client “sutradhaar” and claimed that the probe agency was employing “presumption” and “hypothesis” when any “direct evidence” or “recovery of money trail” against Kejriwal was absent.
Singhvi said that the excise policy was an “institutional decision” par excellence, which was not only signed by his client but also by 15 other bureaucrats and the then lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and going by this logic, even Baijal and other officials ought to be named as accused.
“CBI is poetic. Sutradhaar is the word used. The first-time excise policy went into making is in September 2020. There were nine expert committees for one year, these included four departments. After one year, in July 2021, for the first time, the policy is published. At least 15 bureaucrats would be involved…who also signed it,” Singhvi said.
“The LG also signed it. I don’t want to make LG a co-accused but by his own logic, Mr Singh (for CBI) should make him an accused. Today, there is no direct evidence, no direct recovery. It’s based on hearsay,” Singhvi said.
In a quick rebuttal, Singh said: “The LG had no role. It’s not an approval by the LG. They manipulated the entire script and absolutely no comments were taken by the expert.”
Singh said that the entire script regarding the policy was manipulated by the CM, claiming that the Delhi CM was arrested only after material evidence started to pour in against him and after the agency obtained sanction for his prosecution in April 2024. “Had he been confronted earlier, there was a chance of the investigation being compromised or witnesses being influenced,” Singh said.
Singhvi then questioned the timing of the arrest, which came shortly before Kejriwal got bail in the ED case. Previously too, Singhvi coined the CBI arrest to be an “insurance” against his release.
Singhvi questioned why his client was not interrogated by the CBI, adding that even Vijay Nair, who is alleged to be Kejriwal’s close associate, was granted bail in the CBI case long ago.
Kejriwal approached the high court earlier this month seeking bail, asserting that his arrest by CBI was an attempt to scuttle, obviate and prevent his release from custody in the money laundering case probed by the ED. On June 20, a Delhi court granted him bail citing lack of direct evidence, but on ED’s appeal, the Delhi high court stayed his release on June 21. The trial court order was finally stayed by the HC on June 25, terming it “perverse” and passed without appreciating the material submitted by the ED.
Kejriwal’s bail petition underscored that the CM was being subjected to gross persecution and harassment for wholly mala fide and extraneous considerations. The plea went on to add that the material based on which the AAP chief was arrested was already on record and his arrest a year and 10 months after the registration of the FIR smacks of “glaring malafide.”
Kejriwal has been in custody since March 21 following his arrest by ED, apart from a 21-day interim bail in May granted by the top court for Lok Sabha election campaigning. On June 26, after a sequence of dramatic developments, he was arrested by CBI on his production before the Rouse Avenue court. On July 12, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the ED case, acknowledging that he has spent over 90 days in incarceration But this has meant nothing as he continues to remain incarcerated in the CBI case.
The case against the CM stems from allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy of 2021-22, which the CBI began probing following a recommendation by Delhi’s LG in July 2022.
Kejriwal was the third AAP leader arrested in this connection. Former deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been in jail since February 2023, and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was granted bail by the top court in April, six months after his arrest.